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Juma Masjid, Kerala to be opened for Women Worshippers

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Image Credit: Heykerala.com

Starting April 24, the historic Juma Masjid at Thazhathangadi, believed to be among the 11 mosques constructed by Malik bin Dinar, the eighth century religious preacher from Arabia, will, for the first time, be opened for women worshippers

Special Timings
Women believers can enter the mosque on April 24 and May 8 from 8 a.m. till 12 noon and then from 1 p.m. till 3.30 p.m. and later from 4.30 p.m. till 6 p.m. The timings have been regulated so as not to interfere with the religious rites, a press note said on April 19, The Hindu reported

This historic place of worship, a stunning and unique construction in wood, attracts tourists from far and wide. Women have not been, however, allowed to have a peek into the richly carved interiors, made primarily of wood, so far, said C.M. Yousuf, secretary of the Thazhathangadi Muslim Jamaath, in the press note.

The Juma Masjid, considered one of the most beautiful places of religious worship, reflects the heritage of Kerala temple architectural styles and showcases the rich sculptural styles of Arabic architecture. The mosque also houses the centuries-old sundial, sacred writings from the Quran embossed in wood, the stunning Maalikappuram and the richly carved facades and many more objects of interests.

According to Mr. Yousuf, though researchers and tourists from far and wide reached Thazhathangadi from far and wide, to study and observe the unqiue archirecture and woodwork, so far women have been denied permission.

For the past several years, there have been appeals from local residents to 'allow' women entry.  It was against this background that the Juma Masjid committee decided to allow women to enter the mosque, Yousuf said.
 

Slashes in Education due to Iniquitous WTO-GATS Regime? No, says Modi Government

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Among the debates in education –and given the slashes in budgetary spending on the education sector, including higher education, –is one that, critically involves India's negotiations with the first world in the WTO-GATS negotiations; in the December 2015, Nairobi round, there was increasing concern that India's allowing '‘Market Access’ in this sector would severely impinge on India's sovereign right to take Constitutional decisions and execute policies that ensure equality in access and opportunity; A response obtained by the AIFRTE from the Commerce Ministry, in howsoever vague terms, seeks to deny these conclusions

It was in April 2015, that an MHRD panel first recommended the complete scrapping of the University Grants Commission (UGC), and the setting up of a new body which would be under the direct control of the MHRD.  The autonomy of the UGC would undoubtedly be severely affected by such a move. It was perceived that the panel recommendation were  preparations for pushing through highly centralised policy measures that may not even be deliberately upon in the public domain.
 
Simultaneously, the last Central Budget already saw a jaw dropping budgetary cut of 17% in Education! In the revised estimates for 2014-15, while school education allocation was cut by around Rs. 80,000 crores that of higher education was slashed by Rs. 4,000 crore.
 
This year’s budget saw a 55 per cent budgetary cut in the UGC’s own outlay. The biggest casualties of these measures are of course going to be students from marginalized caste, gender and religious backgrounds.
 
 Sabrangindia has been closely following these developments in the field of education

Columnist  with Sabrangindia, Madhu Prasad, who is also on the Presidium of the All India Forum for the Right to Education (AIFRTE) while commenting upon the December 2015 WTO-GAT negotiations at Nairobi https://sabrangindia.in/column/nairobi-and-after that
 
“Instead of fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide free and compulsory school education of quality to all children and take steps to expand and democratise higher education, the state is retreating from its responsibility. In August 2005, the Government of India (GOI) made an `offer’ to provide Market Access to higher education as a `tradable service’ under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS). This offer was made in spite of the conclave of state education ministers having warned against the move in January 2005, citing fears of conflict with national values and goals. If the offer is not withdrawn before the conclusion of the Tenth Ministerial Conference of the Doha Round being held from December 15- 18, 2015 at Nairobi, Kenya, it will become a commitment in perpetuity.
 
In this analysis, Prasad had further said, “However, the struggle in defence of higher education is already being fought on the ground. As privatisation and marketisation of education are being vigorously promoted by government policies the situation is rapidly deteriorating and attacks on the education system and on academic inquiry and freedom are becoming noticeably fiercer. In order to transform education into a commodity and a tradable service as the GATS regime demands, its character as a vibrant space for socially aware critical inquiry and expression needs to be first destroyed. This means that its constituent, freedoms of thought, opinion, expression, association and instruction can no longer be tolerated. Since academic communities both inhabit and define this space which is so essential to any free, open and stable society they become targets, systemically and individually, of governments and forces that seek to oppress people in the interests of the exploiters and profiteers.”
 
 On December 14, 2015, the Presidium of the All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) wrote a strong appeal to the President of India.
 
Text of the  Appeal:
 
Appeal to advise central government to immediately withdraw the higher education ‘offer’ to WTO-GATS and protect India’s Constitution and sovereignty.
 
Dear Honourable Mr. President,
 
All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) is a federated platform of about 70 students’ and teachers’ organisations and educational rights groups working in 25 states/UTs. On behalf of AIFRTE, Justice (Retd.) Rajinder Sachar sought an appointment with you on 4th November 2015 in order to submit our Memorandum and the signatures of tens of thousands of people from different parts of the country, appealing to the central government to withdraw its ‘offer’ of committing higher education for ‘market access’ to WTO-GATS before the 10th Ministerial Conference at Nairobi (15th to 18th December 2015). We are deeply disappointed that the opportunity to put forth our concerns before you was denied. Due to this denial, people have submitted their signatures to your office/PMO through District Collectors; those received by us at the last minute are annexed herewith.
 
The central government’s unwillingness to withdraw its ‘offer’ of committing higher education to WTO-GATS before the Nairobi Conference, despite nation-wide protests, is a clear evidence of the government plans to convert India’s higher education from a democratic entitlement into a tradeable commodity in the global market. Rampant privatisation and commercialisation has already excluded more than 90% of the deprived sections, especially the SCs, STs, OBCs and the minorities, with women and disabled in each of these sections suffering further exclusion. Once the WTO-GATS regime is allowed to operate in this sector, the doors of higher education will be permanently closed for the aforesaid sections. WTO-GATS will also impact upon the very character of knowledge and values in the higher education system to suit the corporate vested interest at the cost of the needs of our people. Even the Constitutional commitment to equal opportunity in education and the social justice agenda will be dismantled under the WTO-GATS regime as it will be viewed being against ‘level playing field’ for the corporate profits! Thus, committing higher education to WTO-GATS will erode our capacity to formulate educational policies. It is an assault on the sovereignty of the nation. 
 
As President of our Republic, you are oath-bound to protect the Constitution. We take this opportunity to appeal to you to advise and intervene to ensure that the central government withdraws its ‘offer’ of higher education from the WTO negotiating table of the 10th Ministerial at Nairobi before it is too late!’
 
On April 6, 2016, the Forum received a reply from the Commerce Ministry (an Office Memorandum) addressed to the Under Secretary of the International Cooperation Cell, MHRD, AK Gopal.   Through this reply to the MHRD, the Commerce Ministry of the Government of India has sought to clarify that ‘there had there has been no agreement on ‘Education sector’ at the 10th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Nairobi, Kenya. Further the reply states that,
 
‘I am directed to refer to your OM No. 11-1/2015-ICC dated 29th January, 2016 on the subject mentioned above and to inform that India’s draft offers in ‘Higher Education Services’ submitted in the WTO in 2005 are wounded in such a manner as to allow for future evolution of regulations and policies. Moreover, it is still at ‘offer’ stage with no legal validity and still needs to be negotiated. Subsidies have been kept out of its purview, implying that we may continue to grant subsidies to domestic (Indian) service suppliers.
 
2.All scholarships / financial support to students in higher education sector may be continued of discontinued and such schemes may be introduced independent of the obligations under the WTO.
 
3.As regards the issue of FDI, you may like to note that as per the FDI policy of the GOI, 100% FDI is already allowed in the Higher Education Sector under automatic route, subject to necessary sectoral regulations.

4.The philosophy behind making offers in ‘Higher Education Services’ in the WTO is to attract foreign investment, technology and best global practices. The estimated market size of Indian students studying abroad is around USD 15-20 billion. While this is a huge demand on India’s scare foreign exchange resources, it also implies that there is a huge opportunity for Foreign Universities to set up campuses in India. However, the government shall have full flexibility to regulate these Foreign Universities as per its domestic regulations.
 
5.It is also informed that there has been no agreement on ‘Education sector’ at the 10th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Nairobi, Kenya.’

See also:

1. The Nairobi Surrender

2.Why higher education in India must not bow to the market
 


 
 
 
 
 

Garment Workers Brave Protest Compels Backdown on PF Norms

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Front Image courtesy Awakening Hudugru

It was the protests by Bengaluru’s Garment Workers that compelled the Modi Government to push back its controversial and decision or bid to tighten Provident Fund loan and withdrawals
A big salute to them, says this Facebook posting by Vinay Sreenivasa

All workers and employees, especially white collar workers workers in the Information Technology and BT industry have to thank the brave garment workers of Bengaluru who withstood police violence and widespread slander to fight for their rights. If the recently introduced Rules regarding Provident Fund (PF) do get withdrawn it will be hugely to the credit of  these brave-hearts.

The Economic Times and several other newspapers have reported this backtracking by the Modi led NDA II government. The ET said, that it was in  February, the ministry had issued a notification restricting 100 per cent withdrawal of provident fund by members after unemployment of more than two months, among others. 

Following the concerns raised by trade unions and other stakeholders, the ministry decided to keep the notification in abeyance till April 30. Its implementation has been again deferred till July 31, as per a Labour Ministry statement. Facing protest, the government today kept in abeyance for three more months the proposed move to bar withdrawal of employer's contribution to the provident fund corpus until the employee attains the age of 58 years. "The notification (tightening PF withdrawal norms) will be kept in abeyance for three months till July 31, 2016. We will discuss this issue with the stakeholders," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya told reporters.

But it was this first protest, braving lathis and police repression, that brought out garment workers to the streets of Bengaluru that influenced the government’s decision.
 
 
See also
New PF withdrawal norms put on hold till July 31 after protests

 
 
 

Hindutva Goons Torch Library, and the People of Kerala Hit Back – with Books!

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The  Violent Attack on Thought and Discussion Through the Violent Act of Burning Down a Library was Met with a Unique Peaceful Resistance, in Kerala !

 Within less than a month, the burned down Library that had 5,000 books was re-opened with a people's contribution of over 15,000 Books!

The remarkable story of the Campaign to Rebuild the Library after the Assault can be viewed in Images here

“Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon”, said the German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. The RSS attacked a library and burnt it down, the people of Kerala have now turned books into their weapons to fight and defeat communal-fascism.

On March 22, 2016, a gang of about 50 people broke the locks to barge into the AKG Memorial Library and Cultural Centre at Thalookkara village in Malappuram district, Kerala. They ransacked furniture, poured petrol inside the building and set it on fire.

The library, with over 5,000 books and other material such as musical instruments, was completely destroyed in the fire. March 22 is the death anniversary of communist leader A K Gopalan (popularly known as AKG), and on the very day when the people were paying tributes to one of the most beloved mass leaders in the history of Kerala, the communal-fascist forces burnt down a library in his name. Two accused –Satheeshan and Vinod who are allegedly RSS activists –were arrested by the police the day after the attack. A total of five persons allegedly belonging tot he RSS have since been arrested and released on bail so far.

The Sangh Parivar-led BJP government’s attacks on education in general through fund cuts, attempts to communalise education etc., and the attacks on various centres of higher education in particular, have often been termed as an assault on thought itself.

The RSS’s alleged attack on the library and the burning of books brought to light once again its morbid hatred of critical thinking, debates and discussions. (Perhaps it is instructive here to note that R.Unni, noted Malayalam writer, said recently that he had been an RSS sympathizer at one point of time, and that he realised his folly as he grew up, read and educated himself. Thus it is natural that the Sangh Parivar would fear books!)

The burnt down library was started as a Cultural Centre in 1974, and was renamed after AKG following his death in 1977. It was an important centre of theatre and musical performances, and was expanded in 2003 with the addition of a library. Mehfil evenings with performances by the musicians of the region have been a staple of the Centre in the recent years. It has remained a place for vibrant discussions and social interactions for the people of the region.

However, if the Sangh Parivar was under the impression that burning down a library would help them advance their agenda of muzzling all voices against communal-fascism, they were grossly mistaken. Instead it gave rise to a firm resolve among the people to mount a powerful resistance against the forces of hatred.

Appeals went out worldwide, and a social media campaign took off with the slogan "Each One Give One", calling for donations in the form of books and financial contributions. The response to the campaign was immense.
Book collection drives were initiated all over Kerala, in various cities in India including Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, and abroad.

Books were sent in from the Gulf countries, Europe and the US. Numerous writers, artists, political activists, students, youth and others joined in the effort, and the campaign travelled throughout Kerala to collect books. Pusthakavandis (book vehicles) from all over Kerala reached Thalookkara on Sunday, April 17, and the activists who arrived with the books were given a grand reception by the people of Thalookkara.

People have contributed more than 15,000 books and equipment to replace the 5000 books which were destroyed. Generous contributions to construct a new building that is set to emerge as a centre of resistance are still flowing in. As Vijoo Krishnan of the All India Kisan Sabha put it, “the ugly assault on reason was met with the most beautiful resistance”.

Libraries such as the one in Thalookkara dot the landscape of Kerala, and they are particularly numerous in places where the influence of the Left is strong. Reading rooms and libraries, the community of a reading public that emerged around the libraries, and the work of grassroots activists who are involved in running the libraries have played a critical role in shaping Kerala society.

From the 1930s and 1940s, the communists of Malabar have been active in the granthasala or public library movement. As V K Ramachandran notes in his landmark study[*]on Kerala, the vast network of village-level organisations led by the communists laid particular emphasis to setting up libraries.

The communists of Malabar, apart from leading the peasants’ and workers’ movements, were also the strongest contingent of the national movement against British rule, and were leading activists in the struggle for progressive social reform, against untouchability and in the temple entry movement.

After Congress activists were released from jail following the Civil Disobedience movement, and once EMS Namboodiripad became the Secretary of the District Congress Committee, the Congress organisation attempted to set up, in every village, a village Congress committee, a reading room, and a night school. This practice of village-level organisation, unique to Malabar, was taken over and extended by the Communists in the late thirties and forties. EMS, of course, would go on to become one of the tallest communist leaders in India. These village-level organisations and the struggles led by them provided the most powerful impetus for the social transformation that the state witnessed during the 20th century.

 Vijoo Krishnan of the All India Kisan Sabha said, “the ugly assault on reason was met with the most beautiful resistance”.

Considering the political significance of the popular libraries in their historical setting, it becomes clear why the Hindutva forces are so desperate to attack and destroy them. Despite decades of attempts to foment communal riots starting from the Thalassery riots in 1971-72, the RSS has been unable to translate its efforts into any significant advances during the general elections in the state.

The grassroots networks that form the basis of the Left’s organisational presence have stood tall as the strongest bulwark against the attempts of the Sangh Parivar to reshape Kerala society in the communal mould.

Incidentally, a few days after the attack on the AKG Library, the students belonging to the RSS-BJP affiliated students’ wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) burnt copies of a college magazine. Most colleges of Kerala, have an established practice of students bringing out an annual magazine.

The Magazine Editor is a member of the Students Union and is elected directly by the students. This year, at the Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College in Kozhikode, the college magazine brought out by the Union this year was titled “Vishwavikhyaathamaayatheri” (World-renowned Abuse). Its central focus is a critique of the abusive words that are commonly used in Malayalam, and attempts to examine the etymology and meanings of these words.

As it turns out, many of the abusive words have their roots in the entrenched casteism, misogyny and iniquitous structures in our society. This analysis that the magazine expounded upon was too much for the Sangh Parivar to stomach.

Therefore, just as the students of JNU, HCU and so on were branded as “anti-national”, the college magazine and the Union members who worked to bringing it out were branded as the enemies of “Indian culture”.

The ABVP publicly burnt the magazine, and the police has been examining the possibility of the Editorial Board members being charged with sedition, no less! These acts of the ABVP and the police have been widely condemned.

Given the current circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that it is this public outcry that has prevented the creators of the magazine from being subjected to police harassment or even possible incarceration.

The Sangh's ploy in Thalookkara to intimidate the people into submission backfired badly. Now there are widespread discussions on rejuvenating the network of public libraries in Kerala, which in many places have fallen prey to neglect and apathy.

The 4th International Congress on Kerala Studies– a mammoth, periodic conference of activists and scholars which has been crucial to policy discussions in the state in recent decades – held in January this year also witnessed calls for enhanced government support to reinvigorate the network of public libraries. The resistance put up by Thalookkara, it is hoped, would inspire more powerful political and ideological battles against everything that communal-fascism represents.

[*]Ramachandran, V K (1996), “On Kerala’s Development Achievements”, in Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen, “Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives”, P.292-293, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

(The author is a Ph.D. research scholar at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
 
 

A Vengeful State: JNU Administration Selectively Witholds Student Fellowships

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Is there no limit to the pettiness and vindictiveness that University administrations and their masters in the Modi regime’s MHRD (Ministry for Human Resources Development) can display towards young scholars and political activists?

 
Two days ago, on April 18, Chintu Kumari, an AISA activist and former General Secretary of the JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union), got a call from the JNU Administration that her MPhil degree and mark sheet had been “blocked” because of her participation in the February 9 event protesting Afzal Guru’s execution. Chintu is among those who received a show-cause notice from the Administration, but was not among the 8 students who had been ‘debarred from academic activities’ for some weeks.  
 
A few days ago, Shweta Raj, JNUSU Convenor of the School of Languages, submitted her fellowship form – to be told by the JNU Finance Branch that it has orders not to clear the fellowships of the ‘debarred’ students.
 
Soon after, the current JNUSU General Secretary Rama Naga and former JNUSU President Ashutosh Kumar also found that their fellowships are not being cleared by the JNU Finance Branch, even though these students are no longer ‘debarred’.
 
These students overcome huge social and economic hurdles and handicaps to make it to University, and in Universities like JNU and HCU (Hyderabad Central University), they are able to thrive and emerge as political leaders. It is nothing short of criminal that the Modi Government and its pliant Administrations choose to punish these students for their political activism.    
 
The Government wants us to see these students as one-dimensional ‘anti-nationals’. That’s good enough reason to look a little closer, and see who these students are, and what they get from JNU and what they bring to academics and politics that makes the Government want to end their education and their activism.   
 
Chintu’s father is a whole-time activist of the CPI(ML) in the Bhojpur region of Bihar; her mother sells bangles to sustain the family. Her father has had to live in hiding since 1996, since he is a target for the Ranveer Sena that massacred entire Dalit villages in Bhojpur in the 1990s.

At a recent protest in JNU, Chintu spoke with feeling about the serial killings of CPI(ML) activists in Bihar – in the past month itself, Comrades Mahesh Ram, Rampravesh Ram, and Garo Paswan who had been leading struggles of Dalit villagers for land that is rightfully theirs, were killed in Begusarai by feudal elements.  
 
Chintu was schooled in Delhi in the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya. She did her BA from IP College in DU, and then joined JNU for her MA and MPhil in Political Science. Her brother studies in Bhojpur; to get a sense of the struggles that students like him have had to wage (against mass expulsions and arson attacks) to get an education, do read Javed Iqbal’s piece, ‘JNU, HCU, and Once Upon A Time in Bhojpur.

Between Bhagat Singh martyrdom day on March 23 and Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April this year, Chintu, Ashutosh, Anant, Rama and other AISA activists have campaigned intensively in villages and towns of India, as part of the ‘Utho Mere Desh’ (Arise My Country) campaign. Chintu spent much of the March-April month in Bhojpur, addressing street corner meetings, and appealing to people to come forward for a new India of Bhagat Singh’s and Ambedkar’s dreams (Naye Bharat Ke Vaste, Bhagat Singh-Ambedkar ke Raste). 
 
Last year, as JNUSU General Secretary, Chintu had visited Bhojpur to meet the young Dalit girls and women who had been gangraped in Kurmuri village by a former Ranveer Sena commander.


 
Rama Naga, the JNUSU GS, is the first graduate from his village. This is how the Telegraph described him in February, “Naga is a Dalit from Boipariguda in Odisha's Koraput district. His father sells bangles on his bicycle and his mother is a day labourer. …A graduate from Vikram Dev College in Odisha's Jeypore, Naga is shy except when he is on the dance floor. In Jeypore, he gave tuitions to fund his studies….His filmy dances during hostel and varsity cultural events drew crowds on the JNU campus. He's fondly called "Remo" after actor Vikram's character in the 2005 Tamil film Anniyan, which was dubbed in Hindi as Aparichit…. He has earned scholarships ever since he joined JNU.”

His MPhil is a critical study of the movements in his home state against land grab by the Baliapal missile testing range and the POCSO Steel Plant (POCSO has recently admitted defeat and withdrawn plans for the plant). For a young scholar and activist entirely dependent on fellowships, the freezing of his fellowship is a deliberate act of violence. Rama has posted on Facebook about how he, Shweta and Ashutosh are finding it difficult even to pay their mess bills.        
 
Ashutosh is the son of a rail worker in Barh in Bihar. Shweta, from Mughalsarai in UP, in addition to economic hardships, has the usual struggles most young women face, persuading their families to support her choice to pursue a PhD in Hindi literature and Left activism. JNU knows the clear young voices of Ashutosh and Shweta well – from the many struggles in which they have raised slogans and given powerful, inspiring speeches.       
 
The right-wing campaign derides JNU for wasting public subsidies. The likes of Anupam Kher jeer at JNU students asking them why they’re wasting their time doing PhDs instead of earning a living and supporting their poverty-stricken families. BJP MP Chandan Mitra, in a piece urging the Government to jump at any excuse to “shut down JNU” which he dubbed as “a factory that produces only spongers and malcontents.”

Meanwhile, the UGC is slashing funds and fellowships, while the PM himself is seeking to invite foreign universities to set up shop in India.    
 
Students like Rohith or Chintu, Rama, Ashutosh, Shweta and so many others, pose a threat to our rulers, because they refuse to look at education as a commodity; refuse to lose sight of the connections between science, social science, the humanities and society. They refuse to confine their reading and thinking to what can get them marks in exams – they refuse to seal off the classroom from the campus, the street or the slum. ‘Educate’, for them as for Ambedkar, goes hand in hand with ‘organise and agitate’. They know full well that when Bhagat Singh wrote a letter to youth, he didn’t ask them how much they would be earning, he asked them to organise study circles, distribute leaflets, build a revolutionary party, for “for the consummation of our ideal, i.e., social reconstruction on new, i.e., Marxist, basis.” And that’s why they know that Kher, Mitra and Co., would have jeered at Bhagat Singh and his comrades, too, as ‘spongers and malcontents.’ What, after all, is a ‘malcontent’? Neither Bhagat Singh nor Ambedkar preached being ‘content’ with a society ridden with inequality and oppression.

The BJP feels threatened when they see students from rural Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, UP express empathy for the people of Kashmir; organise workers on their campuses; and subject the Government to scrutiny. Above all, the BJP feels deeply threatened when young people refuse to accept the RSS attempts to define ‘nationalism’ in terms of Beef or the saffron-waving Bharat Mata baying for blood-and-bullets; and when students instead define patriotism as a concern for citizens’ rights, for justice, for democracy.  

Modi came to power boasting of support from the young. Now, wherever he goes, he seems as afraid of the young as the fairy tale Emperor was of the child who saw that he wore no clothes. Today’s students are the most vocal in piercing the balloon of ‘Acche Din’, in saying to him, in the words of Habib Jalib:
 
“Phool shaakhon pe khilne lagey” tum kaho,
“Jaam rindon ko milne lagey” tum kaho,
“Chaak seenon kay silne lagey” tum kaho,
Iss khule jhooth ko,
Zehn ki loot ko,
Main nahin maanta,
Main nahin jaanta.   
 
“Flowers are budding on branches”, that’s what you say,
“Every cup overflows”, that’s what you say,
“Wounds are healing themselves”, that’s what you say,
These bare-faces lies,
this insult to the intelligence,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept
 
(Translation courtesy Sana Saleem)

The Government and the University Administrations should have learnt their lesson by now – that every attempt to slap sedition charges, withhold fellowships and block MPhil degrees only adds fuel to a student movement that is growing in determination, and that is a refreshing vent of fresh air for a country suffocated by authoritarianism, betrayed promises and bigotry.       
 

 

Universities in a Ferment as Modi Government Slashes Scholarships

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Does the Modi Government Want Mass Suicides of Students in Campuses Across the Country, angrily demand Research Scholars?

The Modi Government is squeezing fellowship amounts promised under several government schemes to research scholars all over the country. First the differently abled and religious minorities, now even SC and ST research scholars are being denied their fellowship amounts.

The Modi-led government, is pursuing capricious policies and budgetary cuts in higher education that has rendered thousands of Indian university students distraught and tense over the past few months, with a staggered and irrational release of their fellowship and scholarship amounts, leaving universities across the country in a state of angry ferment.
 
Over 20,000 research scholars all over the country have been affected by this tardy and insensitive functioning by the Central government. “Many of us have run into personal debts of Rs 50-60,000,” a research scholar told this writer. “We are helpless, we cannot ask our families and what is worse we are not being able to concentrate on the research,” he added.
 
Research scholars in higher education, who have obtained scholarships under different schemes, have been spending energies in getting scholarship amounts disbursed rather than concentrating on their studies since July last year (2015).

Scholars Among the Differently Abled Denied Fellowship Amounts for Eight Months

 
Among the worst sufferers for a grueling eight month period were research fellows who had obtained the Rajiv Gandhi National fellowship for the Disabled. They did not receive any fellowship amount since June July 2015 and only recently six months worth of money has been disbursed, after a staggering eight month gap. A quick look at the Forum of Scholars (UGC Fellowships Forum ) on the Facebook Page shows the deep anguish that students across the country are going through. Some of these students whom Sabrangindia has made inquiries about include M. D. Hasanujgaman, Ashok Jack and  Arul Selvam among several others. 

Presently, the worst sufferers are minority, Dalit and Adivasi students who get scholarships from the Social Welfare and Minority Ministries apart from the UGC.Minority Students across the country who have been awarded the MANA fellowship (Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minorities) have been denied their amounts for as many as five-to six months and on occasion extending to a year. Sabrangindia has spoken to several of them including Mir Qadri.

Here is what Mir Qadri wrote 55 minutes ago on the Facebook page of the Forum, “All MANF scholars I have planned to go to Minority Cell Department of the Government Telangana to meet the Chairman with our problem of Fellowship amounts not being released.” Sabrangindia spoke to Mir Qadri, “ I am a student of the Maulana Azad University Hyderabad and have not received my fellowship amount for five months. In my knowledge there are at least 1015 students of the same university who have not received their fellowship appoints some for over a year. How are research scholars supposed to even function?” Qadri demanded.
 
Abu Saleh, a research scholar from the University of Hyderabad and part of the Occupy UGC Campaign launched last year in October, says “For the last 18 months, fellowships for students has become a huge issue in the country. There have been clear-cut efforts to stop fellowships plans as like 'UGC Non Net'. Even though there was a hike in amount to some of the scholarships by the end of 2014, the total number has been cut down in many schemes.”
 
Sabrangindia’s investigations across the country have found that the disbursement of all scholarship and fellowship amounts in almost all the schemes of the government are extremely irregular and not functioning properly. Besides, there has been an almost ad hoc cutting and trimming of scholarship entitlements and amounts.
 
At least a dozen students from all over the country, including the Differently Abled, Dalit and Adivasi students were contacted by Sabrangindia. Students who are differently abled are being denied their legitimate fellowship amounts and moreover face a humiliation when they try and contact the authorities.

The last Central Education Budget already saw a jaw dropping budgetary cut of 17%! In the revised estimates for 2014-15, while school education allocation was cut by around Rs. 80,000 crore, that of higher education was slashed by Rs. 4,000 crore. In June 2014, out of 7 lakh candidates who appeared for the NET examinations, a total of around 25000 qualified.  An analysis prepared by the University of Hyderabad Teachers Association states that  clearly, this decision of the UGC is going to leave more than 96% of our students (who were anyway receiving only a meager amount of Rs. 5000 for MPhil and Rs. 8000 for PhD) with no scholarship support to pursue their education.

MPhil and PhD students are research workers, which also involves travel expenses to field sites, libraries etc, purchasing of books and other materials, arranging for accommodation and food where there are no free hostels and messes and so on. Even access to many online journals and articles are privileged and one has to pay if one is outside the privileged circles. Some central fellowship grants are, however, Rs 25,000 per month.

This was the plea made by a differently abled student to Sabrangindia, “Our concerns are being neglected. We have failed to contact the responsible authorities and to get the fellowship. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, UGC and Canara bank are telling us that there are no funds at all for our fellowship!
 
They are saying different things at different times. They always keep referring to others and give us different phone numbers and when we call them, they again keep refer to others. But still there is no proper reply. Some of them say we will get the fellowship in coming months. Some say there are no funds so they don’t know anything. Some say we (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) have already given fund to UGC, but contradictorily the UGC says the ministry has not sent any money!
 
Canara bank says the ministry (of finance) has not sent us funds. Again some tell us either to wait indefinitely or to ask the Finance ministry ourselves to release the funds for our fellowship. When we mail and call, most of the respective offices and their staff refuse to even give us a coherent reply, some even come back and say why we are bothering them.
 
We are in a state of utter darkness. We don’t know when and why we are not getting the fellowship. We do not know what we should do to get the fellowship. Moreover, there is no proper accountability to submit our grievances and inquire about the indefinite delay and non-payment of the fellowship. We are facing huge hardships and severe economic problems due to the non-payment of the fellowship.”  

Researchers from the Minority similarly Strapped 

The condition of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) is another cause for serious concern. In the name of changing the system to a direct bank transfer, even this fellowship amount is being delayed over the last year. The last time the fellowship was given to some students was in October/November 2015.  A few days back after many mails, tweets, and phone calls, they have released one or two months worth of money for a few batches while several are still pending. Research students of MANF 2010-11 batch are still waiting for their June-July fellowship.
 
Last year after huge efforts by the students (RGNF) for SC/STs, scholarships are functioning slightly better but there are various other difficulties such as transferring fellowships from one institution to another. Activation of fellowships for new batches takes months while bad responses and insufficient communication is another problem. UGC, Ministries and Canara Bank always play a blame game and it is the students who suffer.
 
Prestigious institutions of higher education are also clearly indicating to students the complete cancellation of scholarships. This document that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has sent to the new students enrolling in the MPhil and PhD programme from this year is self-explanatory. More than 150 students join TISS for M.Phil and PhD every year and they have been clearly told, “no scholarships!” This will certainly impact the profile of the students who will get in.
 
The circular clearly says that “as per directives of the Central Government of India, Centrally Funded Universties are not entitled for the Non Net fellowships. In view of this there will be no Not Net Fellowship support provided to the scholars from this year.” Only UGC and RGNF scholarships will be available.
 
Over three dozen research fellows whom Sabrangindia spoke to have collectively made this plea. These include Rukmini Dutta, Sreekumar Bishwas, Chiranjib Sarkar, Abhijit Sarkar, Girish Dahiya. Their statement follows:

“The debates regarding UGC Non Net Fellowship and UGC’s messing this up is well known. After several protests throughout the country, the HRD Ministry did set up a committee. The report of the committee was supposed to come in December but researchers are still waiting for the same. The ‘unqualified’ humbug minister seems to be underperformer too. Further, many ongoing fellowship schemes are also in great danger since many of them are being mismanaged in the last two years. The late disbursement system and several months without any fellowships are plaguing the students.
 
Fellowship schemes like MANF, RGNF and so on are dysfunctional for a long time. Last year some students did visit to UGC and other concerned ministries and were promised that the schemes will run as per law thenceforth, but unfortunately it did not happen. As of now thousand scholars of the country have not received their fellowship for many months. For example the scholars under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme for minority students are without fellowship from last October – November. Other schemes like RGNF SC, RGNF ST, RGNF OBC and so on are also running late. Most unfortunately fellowship for disabled students has not been released since last July. In these circumstances these research scholars are in great distress.
 
This repeated late disbursement of fellowships affect thousands of research scholars of the country. Most of the scholars solely depend on fellowship for their needs. Thus, if the fellowship amount is not credited on time, it becomes very difficult to sustain. Researchers literally witness times when they do not have money to support ourselves. Students feel really dejected that they have been pushed down to the level of beggars who have to petition every month for what rightfully deserve as legal entitlements as research scholars. Energy and time are lost much in this process which can otherwise be utilized for fruitful research. Researchers are not even able to concentrate on research, as are constantly worried about the lack of money for basic needs.
Now, whom to blame for all this?
 
Is the assigned Canara Bank and the system or the bureaucracy of UGC responsible? Are the ministries responsible or the entire Govt. itself? Students call and beg to Canara Bank, UGC and Ministries almost every day for the pending money they deserve and when the power leaves them baffled with a mutual blame game, they do not know what to do to get the problem resolved. Researchers wait almost endlessly every month but the hostel authorities will not wait for the mess fees to be remitted; the university authorities will not wait for the tuition fees to be paid; the labs cannot wait for the essential chemicals, tools and instruments to be used from time to time.
 
This might sound little emotional but it’s the ground reality of the researchers in India. Sometime many wonder and regret of the choice of research over other promising careers which would have at least not left them in a situation like this. Please imagine when the employees don’t get salary during the first week of the month.Students appeal not punish them more for choosing to face the challenges of a career in research to contribute to the academic development of the country.Here, it is to be noted that one of the significant reasons mentioned by Rohith Vemula in the tract going around as his 'suicide note' for his fatal decision was monetary problems. His pending fellowship was finally disbursed after his death. We would like to ask whether the Ministries, the UGC and the other powers that be whether they want mass suicides to occur across educational campuses of the country.

Thus, we request the concerned authorities at UGC, at various ministries, and power holders at the Govt. to look into the pathetic situation and do the needful at the earliest to resolve the late disbursement of our fellowships. Please act immediately to solve our problem; please give us our monthly fellowship at least within the first week of every month; please let us do our work peacefully and properly.”
 
Sabrangindia has been since last November consistently following up the Modi government’s failures in the area of higher education. The almost deliberate nonpayment of fellowship amount to a few or several thousand research fellows all over the country appears to be a calculated fall out of policies followed at the highest level.
 

Bastar Black Out: Human Rights Defenders Under Threat

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Freedom of expression is being throttled in Chhattisgarh as the state cracks down on media and civil society, Amnesty International has stated in a report released in New Delhi today

 
For the last six months, the central Indian state has witnessed a sustained attack on journalists and human rights defenders. Conditions have been created where arbitrary arrests, threats to life, and organized hindrance to the work of journalists, lawyers, and other human rights defenders have led to a near total information blackout. The Entire 24 page report can be read here.
 
Local journalists investigating excesses by security forces have been arrested on trumped-up charges and tortured, while their lawyers have been threatened.  Abusive security laws have been deployed. And increasingly, Chhattisgarh is playing to a script of the bizarre.
 
Violations by the state have been accompanied by intimidation by those acting on its behalf. Local self-styled vigilante groups called the Samajik Ekta Manch (Social Unity Forum) and Mahila Ekta Manch (Women’s Unity Form), which appear to have the backing of the state police, have intimidated and harassed journalists and activists who express dissenting views. Among the members of these groups are people who were part of the banned Salwa Judum civil militia.
 
Most of these incidents have taken place in and around the Bastar region of the state, the epicenter of the long-drawn conflict between state forces and armed Maoist groups. Bastar has witnessed violence and counter-violence leading to massive human rights violations. Adivasi communities in particular have faced abuses from all sides. Against this backdrop, the silencing of civil society and the media may both enable and hide more abuses.

Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India, Bela Bhatia, Bastar-based independent researcher and activist,  Kamal Shukla, Editor, Bhumkal Samachar and Isha Khandelwal, lawyer, Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group addressed the press conference.

Extracts from the Amnesty Report:

Former Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience and Adivasi activists, Soni Sori and her nephew Lingaram Kodopi have been raising issues of human rights abuses committed by both security forces and armed Maoist groups in Chhattisgarh for years. Soni Sori, a former schoolteacher, and Lingaram Kodopi, a journalist were arrested by the state police in October and September 2011, respectively, on allegations of acting as couriers for a corporate mining firm, Essar.

The police alleged they delivered Essar’s ‘protection money’ to armed Maoists groups to ensure the firm’s unhindered operations. A politician with the Aam Aadmi Party since 2014, Soni Sori has been acquitted in five cases filed against her, and Kodopi has been acquitted in one of two cases filed against him. Both of them alleged that they were tortured in police custody. On 29 October 2011, a government hospital examined Soni under a court order, and reported that two stones had been inserted in her vagina and one in her rectum, and that she had annular tears in her spine.

On the night of February 20, 2016, Soni Sori was travelling on a motorcycle with a colleague from Jagdalpur to her home in Geedam, Chhattisgarh, when three unidentified men on a motorcycle stopped them and threw a chemical substance on Soni Sori’s face. The activist said that the substance caused an intense burning sensation, temporarily blinding her. She was taken to a hospital in Jagdalpur, and later shifted to a hospital in New Delhi for treatment.

Soni Sori had been trying for weeks to file a complaint against a high-ranking police official in Bastar in a case involving an alleged extrajudicial execution in Mardum. She told Amnesty International India that her attackers on  February 20, had warned her not to continue her efforts.

Following the attack, Chhattisgarh authorities formed a special investigation team comprising state police officials. Soni Sori’s family alleges that the team has repeatedly called in Lingaram Kodopi and Soni Sori’s brother-in-law, Ajay Markam, for questioning, and pressured them to say that they had a role in planning the attack. Ajay Markam was called in for questioning on three occasions and claimed that he was detained for 30 hours in Jagdalpur police station after he was picked up on March 10, 2016. During this time, he says, he was tortured by the police. “I was beaten up and asked to confess to committing the attack on Soni. They hit me with their shoes everywhere on my body while I was lying on the ground,” Ajay Markam told Amnesty International India.

Soni Sori had been trying for weeks to file a complaint against a high-ranking police official in Bastar in a case involving an alleged extrajudicial execution in Mardum. Soni Sori told Amnesty International India that her attackers on February 20 had warned her not to continue her efforts.

A Timeline of Darkness

July 16, 2015
Journalist SOMARU NAG is arrested for allegedly being a Maoist sympathiser. He is held for alleged banditry, arson and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act.
 
September 29, 2015
Journalist SANTOSH YADAV is arrested for allegedly associating with a terrorist organization and supporting and aiding terrorist groups. He is held under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, India’s principal anti-terror legislation, among other laws.
 
November 1, 2015
Adivasi women from Pedagelur village, Bijapur file an FIR alleging rape and sexual assault by members of security forces between 19 and 24 October. The women are assisted by local activists, including researcher BELA BHATIA and lawyers from the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group. 

January 15,  2016
Adivasi women from Kunna village, Sukma file an FIR alleging sexual assault by members of security forces on 12 January. The women are assisted by local activists, including activist Soni Sori.
 
January 18, 2016
Adivasi women from Nendra, Bijapur try to file an FIR alleging rape and sexual assault by members of security forces between 11 and 14 January. The police initially refuse, but later register an FIR on 21 January after local activists hold a press conference.
 
February 8, 2016
Members of the Samajik Ekta Manch demonstrate outside the home of journalist MALINI SUBRAMANIAM in Jagdalpur. They accuse her of being a Maoist agent. Later that night, stones are thrown at her house.
 
February 18, 2016
Journalist MALINI SUBRAMANIAM is forced to leave her home in Jagdalpur after her landlord is pressured by the police to evict her.
 
February 18, 2016
Human rights lawyers SHALINI GERA and ISHA KHANDELWAL of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid group (JagLAG) are forced to leave their home in Jagdalpur after their landlord is pressured by the police to evict them.
 
February 20, 2016
BBC Hindi journalist ALOK PUTUL is forced to abandon an assignment in Bastar after receiving threats. A senior police official had communicated to the journalist that he preferred to spend time with ‘nationalist and patriotic’ journalists.
 
February 20, 2016
Activist SONI SORI is attacked and a chemical substance thrown at her face. Her nephew LINGARAM KODOPI later says that the police tried to pressure him to say that the attack was orchestrated by Soni Sori to gain sympathy. AJAY MARKAM, Soni Sori’s brother-in-law, says he was picked up by the police and tortured.
 
March 16, 2016
SAIBAL JANA, the chief physician at a hospital in Dalli-Rajhara, which he helped set up to treat underprivileged communities, is arrested for allegedly being ‘absconding’ in a criminal case registered in 1992. He is later released on bail.
 
March 21, 2016
Journalist PRABHAT SINGH is picked up by the police, tortured and then arrested under the Information Technology Act for a Whatsapp message making fun of a senior police official.
 
March 26, 2016
Journalist DEEPAK JAISWAL is arrested on a seven-month old complaint filed by a school principal for trespassing, obstructing public servants, and assaulting a public servant.
 
March 26, 2016
Members of the Mahila Ekta Manch demonstrate outside the home of researcher BELA BHATIA. They accuse her of being a Maoist agent, and demand that she leave the state.
 
March 30, 2016
A three-member fact finding committee of the Editors Guild of India concludes that there is a sense of fear among journalists in Bastar and the democratic space for journalism is shrinking.
 

Abuses By Security Forces 

Since 2015, there have been reports of three instances of large-scale sexual violence, physical abuse and looting of villages by security force personnel during search operations in the South Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

 
On  November 1, 2015, three Adivasi women and a teenage girl registered a First Information Report alleging large-scale rape, assault and looting by security force personnel during search operations between 19 and 24 October 2015 in the villages of Pegdapalli, Pedagelur, Gundem, Burgicheru and Chinnagelur in Bijapur district. The women were aided by activists from the group Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression, which included researcher Bela Bhatia.
 
The group quoted one of the survivors as saying: “They began chasing my hens, so I objected. ‘Why are you catching my hens? Do your own work,’ I said. At this, they hit me with a stick, blindfolded me and dragged me to the jungle where they raped me. I heard them say in Gondi they would kill me there itself.” It said that many of the women reported being chased out of their homes by security force personnel and beaten. Over a dozen women later filed statements about the violence. No arrests have been made or charges filed yet.
 
On April 5, 2016, a team from the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes which looked into the allegations said that there was prima facie evidence of mass sexual violence, and the case was not being effectively investigated. The team asked for an impartial investigation, stating that an investigation carried out by the district police would not be fair as they had been involved in the search operations.
 
On January 15, 2016, six Adivasi women registered an FIR against security force personnel for sexual assault during search operations on 12 January in Kunna village and Pedapara in Sukma district. The women – accompanied by activist Soni Sori – reported the violence to a senior official in the district administration on 15 January, but an FIR was only registered later. The women said that security force personnel had stripped and beaten them. One woman said that she was dragged out of her house, and her husband and children taken to a security force camp. When she said that she had a small child, a policeman forcibly squeezed her breast. No arrests have been made or charges filed yet.
 
On January 18, 2016, 16 Adivasi women from Nendra village, including eight rape survivors, traveled to the Bijapur district headquarters to file an FIR against security personnel who allegedly raped more than a dozen women in Nendra during search operations between 11 and 14 January. The police recorded their statements, but refused to register an FIR in the absence of the Superintendent of Police. Isha Khandelwal, the women’s lawyer, said, “The women who were raped were not able to even walk properly. Despite that, they went to file an FIR in the district station, where the police officials refused to file an FIR unless the SP was present.”
 
Shivani Taneja, a member of the group Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression  who accompanied the victims, said, “While taking the statements of the affected women, a woman police official remarked in Gondi, “You are all feeding the naxalites and taking care of them. And now you’re coming here.” There is a bias against them continually because they come from Naxal affected areas.”
 
An FIR was finally lodged on January 21, 2016, after immense pressure from activists and civil society groups.  One of the women’s statements reads: “Two men caught hold of me and dragged me inside my house. They took off my clothes, tore my blouse and pressed my breasts. One policeman raped me and said, ‘We will burn down your houses. If it wasn’t daytime, we would have killed you.’”The personnel allegedly also raped or sexually assaulted other women, threatened and beat up villagers, and stole poultry, food and money. No arrests have been made or charges filed yet.
 

What is Common In All These Cases ? 

–     The allegations against security force personnel include sexual assault against women, physical assault and verbal abuse of villagers and looting of villagers’ homes.
 
–     In all the cases, the police refused to file an FIR at first, and only agreed to do so after a delay. Under Indian law, refusing to file an FIR in a case of sexual violence is a criminal offence.
 
–     All the FIRs were registered against unnamed security personnel. In the case of the Nendra incident, the victims had identified and named police personnel in their statements, but these names were not listed in the FIR.
 
–     No charges have yet been filed in any of these cases. It has been more than six months since the first incident in Bijapur district.
 

 

80 Years and Fighting: All India Kisan Sabha in Today’s Moments of Agrarian Distress

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Godavari Parulekar was elected the first woman president of the AIKS at its Golden Jubilee Celebrations in Patna, 1986

The All India Kisan Sabha formed on April 11 1936, eighty years ago has and will continue to play a key role in withstanding the assault on the rights of India’s farmer and the entire agrarian sector

 
The eightieth anniversary of the All India Kisan Sabha [1] is as significant today as it was eighty years ago. If not more. The birth of the Kisan Sabha was the product of the deep economic recession of the thirties and even today we find it functioning in the background of yet another recession, this one even more brutal as some three lakh peasants have been forced to commit suicide  as the result of agrarian distress caused systemically by untenable policies.

These suicides are a result of the price of agricultural products not being able to defray the cost of production; of the galloping price of food-grains and other articles of consumption once their produce enters the hands of merchants and wholesalers; while the prices of seeds, fertilizers and inputs continue to rise and peasants are forced to borrow money largely from money-lenders at exorbitant  rates of interest which most of them cannot pay back. Worst of all, these debts lead to the distress sales of land and other assets, like tractors and bullocks, all under duress.

[India has lost three lakh farmers since 1995. In Maharashtra alone nearly 60,000 farmers have ended their lives in the last two decades. In 2015 itself, the western Indian states recorded 3,228 farmer suicides with the maximum cases coming from drought hit Marathwada and Vidharbha region.]

Under the influence of a high powered discourse that promotes the neo-liberal economy with its mythology, we are given to understand that the best thing to do is to divest the small-holders of their land as a result of economic distress, and should that fail, to raise empty slogans of corporate production for export in SEZs to solve the unemployment problems in rural India, and actually loot the land from the peasantry by coercive laws and even force, with no jobs forthcoming.

The impact of the agrarian crisis can be seen in its most sharp form in the growing population of the rural landless. They were 23% of the rural population in 1981 and were over 55% by the time the 2011 census was finalized. This is a significant shift in our agrarian landscape.

Professor A.M Khusro pointed out in his book on “Economics of Land Reform and Farm Size in India (1973): “Indian research results almost everywhere in the country and almost without exception reveal that while occasional individual large farmers may have a high intensity of input use and high productivity per acre, as a class they invariably have a smaller yield per acre than small farmers have as a class”.

This was not a result of economic forces alone but directly a result of the policies pursued by the Indian government that were aimed at dispossessing the small and marginal farmer by a number of means. Much of this has to do with the fallacious and unscientific belief that small farms do not pay, despite the large body of material we have to refute it.

In fact, as Professor A.M Khusro pointed out in his book on “Economics of Land Reform and Farm Size in India (1973): “Indian research results almost everywhere in the country and almost without exception reveal that while occasional individual large farmers may have a high intensity of input use and high productivity per acre, as a class they invariably have a smaller yield per acre than small farmers have as a class”.

Indeed, it is with extreme hard labour and labour intensive production on small plots of land that the majority of our farmers have access to as their only means to survive, they have achieved the remarkable feat of increasing food grain production from 106.42 metric tonnes(mt) in 1970-71 to 241.56 metric mt in 2003-04, with the yield per hectare increasing from 872 Kg in 1970-71 to 1798 Kg per hectare(ha) in 2009-10.  The cropping intensity has risen from 118.2 in 1970-71 to 133.2 in 2000-2001 while the area sown more than once increased from 24.93 million ha in 1970-71 to 54.97 ha in 2007-08.

This could not have been achieved without the land ceiling acts being implemented or at least the fear of holding land above the legal limit, by supports provided by the state like banks loans, subsidized fertilizers, HYV (high yield variety) seed, irrigation facilities and electricity as well as the Minimum Support Prices for the output. With this minimum state support, highly unevenly distributed, the Indian small farmer ensured not only food self-sufficiency but a rural home market for industrial production as well.

Misled by foreign financial agencies like the IMF however, governments that followed that of Narasimha Rao (from June 1991 onwards), in which Manohan Singh was the Finance Minister, agriculture was left to fend for itself from 1991-92 on. This was largely in a period when the economy was registering a rate of growth of 7%-9%, but in spite of that  agriculture was starved of funds leading to increased distress and the agrarian crisis was further compounded by encouraging sales and takeovers of already declining per capita holdings.

The impact of the agrarian crisis can be seen in its most sharp form in the growing population of the rural landless. They were 23% of the rural population in 1981 and were over 55% by the time the 2011 census was finalized.

When the central investment in agriculture was cut down from 5.1% of all expenditure in 1998-99 to 3.5% in 2008-09 and even less in 2009-10, it brought down the percentage growth of the GDP in agriculture from 5.2% in 2005-06 to only 0.2% in 2009-10. At the same time the growth rate of agriculture and allied sectors that was 4.69% during the eighth Plan plummeted to 2.06% in the Ninth Plan period.

Since then, the index of agricultural production that had reached 200.7 in 2006-07 and 2007-08, came down to 185.6 in 2008-09. At the same time the per capita availability of foodgrains per day has come down from 503.1 grams(gms) in 1997 to 445.8 gms in 2006 and 440 gms in 2009, and the rate of growth of foodgrain production has gone down below that of population growth.

So our food security is once more going to be dependent on imports, something the Green Revolution had helped us to overcome.

In this period, the rural population has grown from 298.6 million in 1951 to 1028.7 million in 2001, of whom those in agriculture rose from 97.2 million in 1951  to 234.1 million in 2001, but its composition has changed drastically from 71.9% cultivators and 28.1% agricultural labourers in 1951 to 54.4% cultivators and 45.6% agricultural  labourers in 2001. 

These figures themselves reflect widespread dispossession of cultivators in the rural areas despite the best efforts of the peasantry who constitute a large majority of our population to preserve their status as independent owner-cultivators.

To add injury to insult, most governments at the Centre and in the states have not only reversed land ceiling laws but have also taken to large scale dispossession of lands farmed by Adivasis and traditional forest dwellers who have never been  given pattas (small plots of land).

Between 1951 and 2007, “forest land” has seen an increase from 14.24% to 22.88% of all land, without any sort of proper survey and by driving out traditional farmers. Actual cultivators have been driven to farm less fertile land. Waste land has come down from 21.5% to 10% between 1951 and 2007, land under tree crops has come down from 6.97% to 1.13% and fallow land from 9.9% to 8.3%, but net sown area has increased only from 41.8% to 46% in the same period.

Moreover, as there is no ceiling on non-agricultural land, the land-grab from small-holders to land mafia monopolies continues.

On the other hand, land handed over for non-agricultural uses has increased from 3.3% to 8.3%. In effect nearly 2 lakh acres have been taken over for SEZs, 220 lakh acres have been given over to other non-agricultural uses and 53 lakh acres have been taken over as forest, leaving 19 lakh acres surplus land and 120 lakh acres to be distributed still while only some 57.7 lakh acres have been distributed to the rural landless.

Now, in the name of acquiring land for infrastructural projects and corporate agriculture, some 30% of arable land is threatened further. What is worse, this land is taken over by speculators and not even put to use. 67% of SEZ land today remains unused, so it is obvious that not only does this process not expand job potential, it impacts it further by increasing the number of jobless.

It was these policies that, quite naturally broke, the creative backbone of the peasantry, since the early 1990s. The growth rate in gross irrigated area fell from 2.62% 1990-1996 to 0.51% in 1996-2003, electricity consumption fell from 9.4% to -0.86%, total cropped areas from 0.43% to 0.48%, while the terms of trade came down from 0.95 to -1.69% in the same period.

It is no surprise, then, that in the decade of  1996 to 2005 we saw the rise of the  suicide mortality rate of farmers per 100,000 increasing from 12.3% to 18.2% while the corresponding figures for the non-farming population were 11.9% and 13.4%, with a sharp divergence emerging between 2000-2001 when quantitative restrictions on agricultural imports were resorted to and  farmers (65% with marginal holdings of less than 1 hectare) were plunged into competition with heavily subsided multi-billion dollar conglomerates.

Now, in the name of acquiring land for infrastructural projects and corporate agriculture, some 30% of arable land is threatened further. What is worse, this land is taken over by speculators and not even put to use. 67% of SEZ land today remains unused, so it is obvious that not only does this process not expand job potential, it impacts it further by increasing the number of jobless.

Given this dismal state of affairs, we are faced with a grim situation. It is one in which the All India Kisan Sabha, the largest mass organisation of the peasantry needs to find a renewed relevance. The AIKS was formed with the vision of on uniting Indian rural masses with the interest of the working people in the cities, and hence it must come forward today, and take up, issue by issue, the policies that cripple the peasantry, if we are to save the vast mass of our people from further distress and deaths.

This organisation has behind it the glorious history of the Punnapra Vayalar movement against the Travancore Darbar, the Tebhaga movement in Bengal for increasing the share of share–croppers, the Warli revolt of Maharashtra Adivasis,  the Surma Valley and Tripura mobilizations against landlords and feudal rulers, the Telengana armed struggle against the Nizam of Hyderabad  and the struggle against Mahaaja Hari Singh of Kashmir leading to the integration of the state with India,  followed by the  UP Zamindari Abolition Act,   successful  implementation of land reforms in West Bengal and Kerala, and even political leadership of the first elected Left Government in  India  that was led by a Kisan Sabha leader, EMS Namboodiripad, whose government introduced the Land Reform Ordinance in Kerala in 1959.

A similar role was played by Hare Krishna Konar who was a Kisan leader in West Bengal. In Punjab too we see the role of Harkishen Singh Surjeet in the Anti –Betterment Levy struggle in the 1950s. Indeed, at its Golden Jubilee Conference in Patna in 1986 the All India Kisan Sabha elected its first woman President, Godavari Parulekar, a leader of Maharashtra Kisan Sabha and an All India Vice President for a number of years before this.

This is significant as women have played an important role in agriculture for thousands of years but were kept in the background by patriarchy. The recognition of this fact by the Kisan Sabha reflects its important role in changing the social behavior in the rural society of post-colonial India as well.

Recently, the AIKS and the Bhoo Adhikar Andolan have shown that even the Modi government at the centre has had to bow down before the pressure of the Kisan Sabha on the issue of the Land Ordinance that the NDA government wanted to push through parliament. This victory should remind us of the importance of the organised strength of the peasantry in our country today.

Other issues highlighted above require a similar co-ordination between the mass movement of the peasantry and political steps to strengthen and carry forward the programme of expanding democratic rights in the interest of the Indian people, most of whom are from rural areas. The 80th anniversary of the AIKS ought to be dedicated to carrying forward the struggles of India’s backbone, its peasants.  

(The author is the Joint Secretary All India Agricultural Workers Union affiliated to the Communist Party of India, Marxist [CPI-M])
 

Footnotes:
[1] All India Kisan Sabha (All India Peasants Union, also known as the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha), was the name of the peasants front of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), an important peasant movement formed by Sahajanand Saraswati in 1936, and which later split into two organisations known by the same name: AIKS (Ajoy Bhavan) and AIKS (Ashoka Road). The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights, and thus sparking the farmers' movements in India.Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. The formation of Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 helped the Communists to work together with the Indian National Congress, however temporarily
 
 

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